An Iranian, a Bohemian, and an Irishman walk into a bar. It's not a joke. It's Conor McBride's latest mission.

Conor McBride has made a bargain he may live to regret, if he manages to live through it, at all. Lured by the chance to reboot his career as a violinist, he's accepted a mission to Prague, agreeing to extract a defecting Iranian agent in exchange for the chance to perform while he's there. His boss has promised a simple, stitched-up mission, but as he might have expected, it soon unravels into chaos and confusion.

The Iranian has endangered his own life with a shocking indiscretion, and a suspicious MI6 agent is hatching a plot that might spiral into an international crisis. It's a dangerous combination, and on top of it all the partner Conor brought with him is a freshly trained operative he couldn't persuade to stay home.

A year earlier, he'd arrived at Kate Fitzpatrick's country inn like a fugitive in the night, with little to say for himself. In the months that followed she'd poked her way through all his cautious evasions and given up secrets of her own. Conor hopes their relationship is on track to become a different sort of partnership, but his desire to shield Kate from the covert side of his life was no match for her determination to share in its risks.

Before long it's clear Conor is going to need all the new skills Kate can offer. Within hours of their arrival in Prague, a mysterious stranger is trailing their every more, and they are discovering the fabled lanes of this beautiful old-world city are not half as twisted as the secrets everyone is hiding.